Isaiah Washington Question??

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SelectionSunday said:
To lump Konate with Diedhiou is unfair. Not every rotation player can be a star.

Konate had value for last year's team, and he'll have even more this season now that Curry is out for the season. Bang, board, scrap, block a few shots, get a few garbage baskets off stick-backs. You need those kind of guys on a team. Trevor Winter is a name that comes to mind as a comparison.
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Totally agree. Just need Konate not to pick up offensive fouls (moving screens!) and not shoot too often. Play decent D, rebound, pound on the opposing team's center and get a few putbacks.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
What a waste of scholarships. As long as you stagger scholarships correctly, I'm ok with having one or two allocated for development so they can be forces when seniors. Talk about a couple of swings and misses. Good thing we have Thomas and Oturu coming on to replace them
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Pretty harsh/unfair critique of Konate. Tons of players don't end up developing into starters--that doesn't mean they're wastes of scholarships. Konate was already a decent backup last year who was expected to be our 4th big this year. Maybe he's improved at least a little, like he already has each year. We don't need him to score much. He just has to rebound, defend, and finish easy buckets.
 

underground629 said:
Pretty harsh/unfair critique of Konate. Tons of players don't end up developing into starters--that doesn't mean they're wastes of scholarships. Konate was already a decent backup last year who was expected to be our 4th big this year. Maybe he's improved at least a little, like he already has each year. We don't need him to score much. He just has to rebound, defend, and finish easy buckets.
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They certainly weren't wastes, but the lack of depth on this current team is a direct result of the several swings and misses Pitino took in early recruiting.

McNeil
Gaston
Lofton
Josh Martin
Dorsey
Johnson

Could add Gilbert to this list too

All the time spent recruiting the above players to get maybe 1-2 full years of basketball out of them? Obviously, Johnson was out of our control (or was it?) and it didn't cost us a scholarship, but it cost us a season developing a player.

The double hit is when you take a Bakary, who is a quality 4-year backup center for the program and EVERY Big10 team has that type of guy on their roster, is you cannot have a same type same position guy miss in the same class. At a minimum the Martin, Gilbert, Dorsey, Lofton, McNeil left the program so you got the scholarship back, but that scholarship is now at a minimum a year younger and leaves your depth very young or poor in quality.
 

I would say we don't get Murphy if Martin stays. If Dorsey still here we don't get Washington. Probably don't get him either if Jarvis is healthy. Gilbert was swapped for Matz essentially TBD on that one. Lofton and McNeil are irrelevant because they would be out of eligibility, but I would say those two hurt us the most in our eight win campaign. At some point you have to ask yourself who would you rather have. Gas is a waste of space I agree on that but at least Konate can defend and rebound
 

bemidjigopher said:
I would say we don't get Murphy if Martin stays. If Dorsey still here we don't get Washington. Probably don't get him either if Jarvis is healthy. Gilbert was swapped for Matz essentially TBD on that one. Lofton and McNeil are irrelevant because they would be out of eligibility, but I would say those two hurt us the most in our eight win campaign. At some point you have to ask yourself who would you rather have. Gas is a waste of space I agree on that but at least Konate can defend and rebound
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I know that we filled those scholarships, and he's done a good job filling them for sure. But my point was, that's why the depth isn't there or is extremely young. Could Martin have been Murphy but a senior this year? (We've now learned that's unlikely but you never know). Could McNeil have been an extra wing last year? While Washington will be a nice backup, a junior Dorsey could be so helpful this year.

It's like spinning your wheels when starting a race, it's just delayed/made this roster "incomplete".
 


underground629 said:
Pretty harsh/unfair critique of Konate. Tons of players don't end up developing into starters--that doesn't mean they're wastes of scholarships. Konate was already a decent backup last year who was expected to be our 4th big this year. Maybe he's improved at least a little, like he already has each year. We don't need him to score much. He just has to rebound, defend, and finish easy buckets.
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Fair take. I'd take a Trevor Winter sr yr from him
 

Winasota Gopher said:
I know that we filled those scholarships, and he's done a good job filling them for sure. But my point was, that's why the depth isn't there or is extremely young. Could Martin have been Murphy but a senior this year? (We've now learned that's unlikely but you never know). Could McNeil have been an extra wing last year? While Washington will be a nice backup, a junior Dorsey could be so helpful this year.

It's like spinning your wheels when starting a race, it's just delayed/made this roster "incomplete".
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my hunch is a JR (or Redshirt Sophmore) Dorsey isn't going to like playing behind a FR McKinley Wright in Colorado this year. From my little interaction with Dorsey in the summer before his Fr year, i got the impression he would be tough for a coaching staff to put up with for long. After seeing some freshman turnovers, I was even more convinced.

Murphy>>>>>>>Martin

McNeil was out of the blue-- him and his family seemed so happy to have him out of his hometown environment and getting a new lease on life-- that one still baffles me. But his follow-up actions make me just a bad judge of character, i guess.
 





Minnesconsin fan said:
my hunch is a JR (or Redshirt Sophmore) Dorsey isn't going to like playing behind a FR McKinley Wright in Colorado this year. From my little interaction with Dorsey in the summer before his Fr year, i got the impression he would be tough for a coaching staff to put up with for long. After seeing some freshman turnovers, I was even more convinced.

Murphy>>>>>>>Martin

McNeil was out of the blue-- him and his family seemed so happy to have him out of his hometown environment and getting a new lease on life-- that one still baffles me. But his follow-up actions make me just a bad judge of character, i guess.
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What family? I remember both of his parents were dead, was he living with an uncle or grandparent or something?
 

underground629 said:
Pretty harsh/unfair critique of Konate. Tons of players don't end up developing into starters--that doesn't mean they're wastes of scholarships. Konate was already a decent backup last year who was expected to be our 4th big this year. Maybe he's improved at least a little, like he already has each year. We don't need him to score much. He just has to rebound, defend, and finish easy buckets.
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+08

Prior to last year.......I was one of the biggest Konate haters. It was the brick hands that drove me nuts. He was getting the ball stolen away by smaller guys because his awareness was basically zero. He made a huge jump last year. Konate will be a good backup for us. And the fact that he's almost exclusively a defensive center.....works perfectly for this team.
 

stocker08 said:
+08

Prior to last year.......I was one of the biggest Konate haters. It was the brick hands that drove me nuts. He was getting the ball stolen away by smaller guys because his awareness was basically zero. He made a huge jump last year. Konate will be a good backup for us. And the fact that he's almost exclusively a defensive center.....works perfectly for this team.
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It’s cause he played 10 mpg last year. Probably need more this year.
 

Cayman said:
What family? I remember both of his parents were dead, was he living with an uncle or grandparent or something?
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Doesn't really matter anymore. Daquein was on the verge of having a breakout sophomore year, then got arrested after flipping out on his girlfriend at the time over a backpack before the Gophers were flying out for the preseason NIT.

He's now in jail back in Baltimore for murder, so there's that.

Every coach at some point invests in a recruit that doesn't pan out, whether that player transfers or isn't the absolute stud they were predicted to be. Gaston just sticks out because he can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. Josh Martin looked horrible and lost on the court in 2 games, but blind-eyed Dad couldn't recognize that and got him to transfer due to a lack of playing time instead of working his butt off to get better and earn the playing time.

Let's not lose focus on this year. Isaiah Washington looks to be the best PG recruit the Gophers have had, maybe in a few decades.

IW and Jamir Harris will likely have a greater impact on this season than any of us can imagine right now. When was the last time the Gophers were picked 3rd in the Big Ten in the preseason?! I can't wait for basketball season.
 



Winasota Gopher said:
They certainly weren't wastes, but the lack of depth on this current team is a direct result of the several swings and misses Pitino took in early recruiting.

McNeil
Gaston
Lofton
Josh Martin
Dorsey
Johnson

Could add Gilbert to this list too

All the time spent recruiting the above players to get maybe 1-2 full years of basketball out of them? Obviously, Johnson was out of our control (or was it?) and it didn't cost us a scholarship, but it cost us a season developing a player.

The double hit is when you take a Bakary, who is a quality 4-year backup center for the program and EVERY Big10 team has that type of guy on their roster, is you cannot have a same type same position guy miss in the same class. At a minimum the Martin, Gilbert, Dorsey, Lofton, McNeil left the program so you got the scholarship back, but that scholarship is now at a minimum a year younger and leaves your depth very young or poor in quality.
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Every team has players who end up contributing very little on the court. I agree that we've had too many of those misses the past few seasons though. Our bench has to be better. I just wouldn't call Konate a bust or anything, especially when he's been a decent backup and we don't know if or how much he's improved. Plus, didn't we get him pretty late in the recruiting process? He was worth an offer with that size and decent athleticism.
 


underground629 said:
Every team has players who end up contributing very little on the court. I agree that we've had too many of those misses the past few seasons though. Our bench has to be better. I just wouldn't call Konate a bust or anything, especially when he's been a decent backup and we don't know if or how much he's improved. Plus, didn't we get him pretty late in the recruiting process? He was worth an offer with that size and decent athleticism.
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Did I call him a bust?
 

Winasota Gopher said:
Did I call him a bust?
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I wasn't trying to say you did, though I can understand why you inferred that. I was just stating my opinion of him--that he's not a bust, meaning he's at least a serviceable player--which all started in response to someone else calling his scholarship a waste (i.e., that he's a bust).
 

Moonlight said:
Bull, on both counts.
Are some Minnesotans going to be able to handle a confident, exciting player without comments like this? probably not.
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Im having trouble finding what you found wrong with my comment? It wasnt negative in any way.
 

Does the over 60 crowd on GH & Twitter still think it's too early to be excited about Washington? All I heard from half of the fans here was "that flashy stuff isn't going to work at this level" & "let's not get too hyped about him"... if you watched him play at all over the last 2 years, you could see this coming. The kid is a beast. He's got a killer mentality & will be starting sooner rather than later. I'm not basing this solely off of today's performance; if you watched him take it to Trevon Duval in the Elite 24 game in 2016, you'd know he was going to be great. His moves/flash will work at this level, all the hype is warranted, he'll be on the first team freshman team at the end of the year & he will be a program changing player!
 

GopherDude said:
Does the over 60 crowd on GH & Twitter still think it's too early to be excited about Washington? All I heard from half of the fans here was "that flashy stuff isn't going to work at this level" & "let's not get too hyped about him"... if you watched him play at all over the last 2 years, you could see this coming. The kid is a beast. He's got a killer mentality & will be starting sooner rather than later. I'm not basing this solely off of today's performance; if you watched him take it to Trevon Duval in the Elite 24 game in 2016, you'd know he was going to be great. His moves/flash will work at this level, all the hype is warranted, he'll be on the first team freshman team at the end of the year & he will be a program changing player!
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Straw man.
 

I’d say after watching todays scrimmage against D1 competition that you can already see we got a dang good player and we lucked out to get him.
 

GopherDude said:
Does the over 60 crowd on GH & Twitter still think it's too early to be excited about Washington? All I heard from half of the fans here was "that flashy stuff isn't going to work at this level" & "let's not get too hyped about him"... if you watched him play at all over the last 2 years, you could see this coming. The kid is a beast. He's got a killer mentality & will be starting sooner rather than later. I'm not basing this solely off of today's performance; if you watched him take it to Trevon Duval in the Elite 24 game in 2016, you'd know he was going to be great. His moves/flash will work at this level, all the hype is warranted, he'll be on the first team freshman team at the end of the year & he will be a program changing player!
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Pretty sure 99.999% of fans have been extremely excited about Washington and have been expecting him to be a very good player. He looked great today.
 

Gopherholefan said:
I’d say after watching todays scrimmage against D1 competition that you can already see we got a dang good player and we lucked out to get him.
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I remember Isaiah saying Syracuse was his dream school during his recruitment, but he never got an offer from them since Syracuse was after 5-stars Quade Green and Trevon Duval, who ended up at Kentucky and Duke respectively. I checked their 2017 class and they ended up with a 3-star combo guard ranked around 300. Seems like Green visited Syracuse multiple times, and Boeheim was in good position to get him until Kentucky made a late push.
 

My mind was made up when I saw a video of Washington go up against Isaiah Whitehead (who was the #2 sg behind Vaughn in 2014 and is now in the NBA) in a pickup game this summer. He was matching Whitehead point for point


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Kid looks legit! Monster game yesterday. Can never have enough good guards and a dynamic one is a difference maker!
 

Cayman said:
I remember Isaiah saying Syracuse was his dream school during his recruitment, but he never got an offer from them since Syracuse was after 5-stars Quade Green and Trevon Duval, who ended up at Kentucky and Duke respectively. I checked their 2017 class and they ended up with a 3-star combo guard ranked around 300. Seems like Green visited Syracuse multiple times, and Boeheim was in good position to get him until Kentucky made a late push.
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I remember that as well. Syracuse rarely recruits small guards though. They like the big guards for their zone. But I agree with you, I think Boeheim thought he had Green wrapped up.
 



gopherhoopsguy said:
I still believe he starts by big ten play.
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Washington, Mason, Coffey, Murphy, and Lynch does seem like our best line up. Dupree is so versatile that he is the ideal 6th man. He could sub for Washington, Mason, or Coffey and be a seamless fit. I just hope he'd be ok coming off the bench after starting the year as a starter. He'd be a sure fire starter next year so hopefully he'd keep that in mind.
 

From a lineup balance standpoint, I don't think you gain much from having Washington start. If you look at our second unit you don't have much as far as shot creation, who would you rather have being ball dominant with a weaker supporting cast Dupree or Washington? I think DuPree compliments Coffey and Mason much more than Washington. Washington does the same for Bakary who likely benefits from Washington dumping the ball off to him in the paint as opposed to setting high ball screens for Dupree.

If I'm coaching, he's getting 25 minutes coming off the bench giving DuPree a breather and running the point when Mason needs rest.
 

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